Saturday Odds & Sods: Too Close For Comfort

Think Flag by William N. Copley

I’m keeping this week’s outing snappy because the time change has messed me up. My sleep patterns have been disrupted, as a result I’ve been groggier than hell. Additionally, Della and Paul do not respect day light savings time and demand to be fed at odd hours. Oddly enough, such oddity will inevitably impact Odds & Sods.

A quick note on the featured image. I cheated on Jasper Johns with a 1961 flag painting by William N. Copley aka CPLY. I think the think flag fits this moment eerily well. The country needs more thinking and fewer hot takes right now. Why are people bleating over Tucker Carlson when there are babies in cages?

This week’s theme song was written in 1956 for the musical Mr. Wonderful by Larry Bock, George David Weiss, and Larry Holofcener. I selected Too Close For Comfort because of all the votes that are still being counted, especially in Florida, Arizona, and California.

We have two versions for your listening pleasure: Frank Sinatra with the Billy May Orchestra, and a fabulous Ella Fitzgerald-Joe Williams duet with the Count Basie Orchestra. You know that I love me some Bill Basie.

Now we’ve gotten way too close for comfort, it’s time to jump to the break but first a reminder that Too Close For Comfort was also the title of a long-running Ted Knight sitcom that I watched only once.

Are you comfortable now? I am even if PD is attempting to sit on my lap as I write this sentence. Writing and interacting with the giant kitten are incompatible activities. He’s a big boy.

Before moving on, here’s the Velvet Fog’s version of our theme song:

We begin our second act with a piece that I planned to post in celebration of Joe Donnelly’s re-election, which I expected to be too close for comfort but it was not to be. Indiana is another state where Democratic dreams go to die.

How Hoosier Hoops Explain Hoosier Politics: There’s a swell article in Politico Magazine by Adam Wren about the link between politics and basketball in Indiana. Bob Knight’s endorsement of Trump in 2016 caused a stir as did Pacer star Victor Oladipo’s endorsement of Donnelly in this cycle. Trump, of course, won the state and Donnelly’s re-election bid failed but Wren argues that Knight is the past and woke NBA stars like Oladipo are the future. Did I just say woke? I must be slipping. Time for more coffee.

Coffee With Kornacki: MSNBC’s frenetic big board man Steve Kornacki isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I’m a fan. I enjoyed watching Up with Steve Kornacki before he was promoted to national political correspondent. My nickname for that show has morphed into a segment title: Coffee With Kornacki. I’m not sure if Steve really needs more coffee.

What’s not to love about a host whose childhood ambition was to be a game show host? His dream became a reality with the Up Against The Clock segment of Up.

He is always either half-smiling or totally beaming while flicking his way through a series of “too close to calls” or explaining why Loudoun County, Virginia, is electorally important, and his teeth are never less than Crest White Strips perfect. The sleeves of his button-down shirt are, without fail, rolled up to the elbow. He’s an affable graduate school professor on the outside, and full Hermione Granger on the inside. The dude knows how to find the answer to every election night question and, if pressed, could probably find a couple of Horcruxes, too. (Their location is surely embedded that map somewhere.)

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature. Third act? What the hell is this, Hamlet? Cue obligatory To Be Or Not To Be meme:

Now where was I? Oh yeah, our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth: I was astonished upon realizing that I’ve never used this pairing before, especially since Michael F and I are always going on about the resemblance.

Image by Mike Mongo.

If you disagree, you can always demand a recount. It’s the Florida Way.

The Weekly GV: The turnout on Tuesday was decent by American standards but pitiful compared to other western countries. We make it way too hard to vote and have Republican politicians running elections in way too many states. They only want the right people to vote: right-wing people. Way, no way.

Here are the Master’s thoughts on voting:

The scariest thing of all is that low information voters elected a low information president* in 2016. And they still don’t know how badly they fucked up. Dumbasses.

Speaking of scary, it’s Bobby Knight time.

Saturday GIF Horse: Hardcore hoops fans of a certain age still talk about the time that then Indiana Coach Bob Knight threw a chair during a game.

Knight is a professional asshole. I wept bitter tears the day that this wingnutty fucker passed the great liberal Dean Smith as the winningest college basketball coach of all time.

Saturday Classic: Jackson Browne provided last week’s theme song. This week, I’m closing things out with his great 1976 album, The Pretender. The opening track, The Fuse, is one of Jackson’s finest songs. Enjoy.

That’s it for this week. I originally planned to post this image of David Lindley, Bruce Springsteen, and Jackson Browne last Saturday, but who could resist young Willie McCovey and even younger Kurt Russell? Note that Jackson looks almost the same some 40 years later. Holy Picture of Dorian Gray, Batman.